To live or to die
by ANAKLUSM0S
Summary: Takes place after BotL. Rated T just in case. Plz R
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or any of the characters. If I did I sure wouldn't be on this site.

I was sitting on my couch being bored as hades when the doorbell rang. You see, since I might not live until my 16th birthday, I decided to have a party before I went to camp. I kind of felt like I deserved it, since I spent the last few weeks training. I got up and answered the door to see Annabeth standing outside.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey Seaweed Brain," she replied. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." I moved aside to let her in. "Where's everybody else?"

"They got into some trouble. I came early so you wouldn't think that we left you."

"Oh," I said. We started talking to try and pass the time. Things like, "how was your summer?" or "how many monsters tried to kill you?" You know. The usual. Finally it occured to me to ask what had happened to everyone else.

"They ran into some monsters, like the minotaur and some _dracanae_(sp?).

"Do you think that they'll be okay?"

"Yeah, sure, they should be fine."

We went on talking like that for a while until the doorbell rang.

"I'll go get that," she offered.

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We were all sitting around being totally bored as hades (whoa, deja vu!), wondering what to do next.

"We could watch a movie," Nico suggested.

"Yeah, but our computer's broken down so we can't check what's on." I replied. I thought for a minute. "Hey Annabeth, do you still have Daedalus's laptop?"

"Yeah," she reached into her bag and brought it out.

"Whoa, big bag." Thalia commented.

"Here." I took the laptop and started searching for an internet connection.

"Percy, are you sure that's okay?" Annabeth asked me.

"Yeah, I'll just steal our neighbor's internet connection for a little bit."

_Incoming Iris message. Please deposit one drachama for five minutes._

"Here, I need to answer that. Nico, can you take this?" I handed the laptop to Nico. Annabeth winced.

"Don't worry Annabeth," Nico said grinning. "I won't blow this one up."

I walked out of the room, fished a drachama out of my pocket, and threw it into the rainbow. Chiron appeared.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi. Percy. Our spies report that Kronos' army is getting stronger, so you need to come back to camp by tomorrow."

"Okay," I replied. "Is that it?"

"I guess so. See you tomorrow."

"Bye." I waved through the Iris message, and returned to see Nico playing on the laptop while Annabeth still had a frown on her face. I sat down beside Nico. He was playing Solitare. "Red six on black seven," I said, gesturing to the screen.

"Oh. Thanks."

"Sure." I sat down back on the couch. "So what movie have we decided to see?"

"Well, we decided on one, but it doesn't start until six," Thalia replied.

I checked my watch. "It's 4:30 right now, and we probably need to get there around 5:35 to make sure we have everything. So it looks like we have another hour to kill."

Nico and Annabeth groaned simultaneously. Thalia just sighed and put her head in her hands.

"C'mon guys," Grover said. "We'll find something to do." He turned to me. "Isn't there an arcade down the street?"

"Sure," I replied. "If you want to go."

"I don't know," Annabeth said.

"I hear they have a sim city game," I lied.

"I'm in," she said and jumped off the couch.

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After sucking at pac-man for a half hour, I walked over to see what Annabeth was doing. As it turns out, they _did _have a sim city game. Right back there in the corner with all the games nobody everplayed anymore.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey," she replied, not looking up.

I leaned over to look at the building that she was making. "No," I said.

"What?" This time she did look up.

"The structural supports are all wrong. See, if you just take an objective look at it combined with simple physics..." I went on to talking for quite a while.

"Percy," she said slowly, "How do you know all that?"

I laughed. "I spent five hours memorizing facts from a book to flip you out." I stopped laughing and thought for a while. "It wasn't worth it."

She rolled her eyes. "Seaweed Brain," she muttered.

Eventually 5:30 came about. We were sitting in the movie theater, waiting for it to start. Thalia was eating popcorn, me and Annabeth both had some candy, and Grover slowly chewed tin cans. Nico, of course, ate nothing. Sitting there, I thought back to my 15th birthday party, and how that had gone over.

_Flashback_

_I took Nico down the stairs and introduced him to my mom and Paul. After about a half hour of him eating, he turned to me. _

_"We should probably continue thisconversation elsewhere," he suggested, his eyes flickering towards Paul._

_"Sure," I said. We walked up to my room. "So you said you had a way to get rid of Kronos and save Luke?"_

_"Yeah," he said. "About that. I'm not exactly sure."_

_"Try me," I responded. _

_"Well, have you ever looked really close at Kronos' weapon?"_

_"Kind of," I said. "Half Celestial Bronze, half steel."_

_"Yeah," he smiled. "But don't you think that it's wierd that he uses a combination of Celestial Bronze and Steel, when if he used Stygian Iron, it would be so much easier?"_

_"Now that you mention it," I said slowly. _

_"You see, Stygian Iron absorbs the energy from whatever it touches. Afterwards, it goes to where it really belongs."_

_"I don't get it," I replied._

_"If I stabbed you with Stygian Iron right now, you would go to the Underworld. If I stabbed a god, he would go to Mount Olympus. If I stabbed a titan, he would go back to where the gods sent him. So if I stabbed Atlas, he would go back to holding up the sky. If I stabbed Kronos..."_

_"He would go back to Tartarus?"_

_Nico grinned. "Excatly."_

_"But how does that save Luke?" I asked._

_"Well, that's the part that I'm not sure about. I think that since Stygian Iron absorbs energy, it would go after Kronos, seeing as he's a titan, and send him back to Tartarus while ignoring Luke, since he's just a normal half-blood."_

_"Okay, but how would we even get close to Kronos? I mean, he's the Lord of Time. Couldn't he just slow me down and kill me?"_

_"Ah," Nico said. "I've been thinking about that too. You see, Kronos slowed you down, but not Rachel when she hit him with her hairbrush. So that means if he doesn't know somebody's there, he wouldn't be able to slow them down." _

_"So you're saying if we used Annabeth's invisibility cap?" I guessed._

_"Or Hades' helm of darkness. I bet I can get him to lend it to me," Nico grinned. "Anyway, this plan would be really dangerous. You still want to do it?"_

_"Count me in," I said. _

_End of flashback_

Finally the movie started. Unfortunately for me though, that's when all hadeswas about to breakloose. In the dim light of the movie theater I saw a ton of monster scattered about. Well, what can you expect, three children of the big three in the same place. I saw the manticore, some dracanae, and a hellhound. (How did they even get that in there?) I leaned over toward Annabeth.

"Let me borrow your knife."

"Why?"

I gestured around the movie theater. She gasped, and then cursed under her breath.

"Why do you need my knife though?"

"I have a plan," I lied.

"Fine." She handed me her bronze knife.

"Thanks." I took it and slowly walked down the aisle. The manicore was probably the biggest threat. I walked over and tapped it on the shoulder. It jumped, then turned around to face me.

"Ah. Pers-" It didn't get much farther than that before I stabbed it in the head. Sadly, that was the end of the discreet part of our battle. All of the monsters turned and attacked us.

"Annabeth, catch!" I threw the knife back to Annabeth, drew Riptide, and started battle with a dracanae. It lunged at me. I jumped and swung at it in midair. It dodged and pounced on me. I felt a searing pain go through my left shoulder. Luckily, the attack gave me the opening that I needed. I struckat it with Riptide, and soonI was surrounded in a bunch of dust. I looked around to see howeveryone else was doing.Nico's dracanae was gone, and Thalia and Grover werefightingthe other one. Annabeth was fighting the hellhound without much luck. I saw it pounce on her.She tried to jump out of the way, but it was too close. I threw Riptide.It peirced right through the hellhound, and itturned to dust. I ran up to Annabeth, who was panting and sitting on the ground.

"Thanks,"she said.

"So was screaming all part of some master plan you had or..." I asked playfully.

In answer, she got up and punched me in the arm. Hard.

"Ow! Geez," I mumbled. I took some Nectar out of my pocket and drank some, instantly feeling to cut in my shoulder go away. "Grover! Thalia! You okay?"

Thalia stabbed the dracanae in the chest. She turned around and gave me a thumbs up.

"What now?" Nico asked.

"Well for starters," Thalia snapped her fingers. "You didn't see that. There were no monsters here, and we never came." The mortals sat back down and started watching their movie. Thalia turned back to us. "I think we should go back to camp now."

"Yeah. C'mon, let's go find a cab," I said. 20 minutes later, we found ourselves standing at Camp Half-Blood. A guy walked over to us, probably 15 or 16.

"Hey Annabeth," he called.

Annabeth ran down the hill and kissed him. "Hey," she said.

I turned to Grover. "Am I missing something?"

"Oh yeah!" Grover said. "I forgot to tell you. Annabeth has a boyfriend now."

"Ah. Anyway, I'd better go find Chrion." I walked to the archery range, where Chrion was trying to get arrows out of his tail.

"Hello Percy," he said, smiling. "I'm a little busy right now, can you come talk to me before capture the flag tonight?"

"Sure," I said. I went into Posiden cabin, to find Tyson.

"Brother!" he shouted, and gave me a hug that almost broke my ribs.

"Hey big guy," I said. We went down to thesword arenaand played with Mrs. O'Leary. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. We walked down to the dining pavilion and got our food. I walked over to the fire. "Posiden," I said, and threw most of my food in there. I walked back and sat down at Posiden table. While Tyson was filling me in on what was going on under the sea, Annabeth came to our table and sat across from me.

"Look, Percy I-"

I put my fork down. "I'm done, I'd better go talk to Chrion." I got up and left the table, my dinner only half-eaten.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Thanks for all the reviews, favorite stories, favorite authors, etc.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own PJO or any of the characters

I walked up to Chiron. He was still eating his dinner.

"Ah. Hello Percy. I need to talk to you in private. Would you mind coming to the Big House with me?"

"Sure," I said, following him. Before I knew it we were outside the building. Chrion gestured for me to go in.

"So what do you plan to do about Kronos?" he asked.

I told him about Nico's idea, from start to finish. The whole thing took about five minutes.

"I see," he finally said. "That just _might_ work."

"Might?" I asked.

"Ah, yes, you see, even Nico admitted it. This is just a guess, so if it doesn't, you'll probably end up dead."

"Oh." That was all that I could say on.

"I guess you should probably take up a quest. Are you willing to do this?"

"Of course," I responded immediately.

"Very well. Go and consult the Oracle then."

I walked up the stairs and opened the trap door to the attic. The room was still cluttered with junk, and the mummy was still sitting on a three-legged stool by the window. As I approached it started speaking to me.

_I am the spirit of Delphi, Speaker of the prophecies ofPhoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python._The Oracle looked at me with it's cold, dead eyes._ Approach, Seeker, and ask._

I gulped and took a step forward. "What must I do to stop Kronos?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and the green mist poured out. I saw a vague image of Kronos/Luke, standing in front of me. It looked so real I almost raised Riptide to defend myself. The Oracle spoke:

_Three shall go west to the Lord of Time,_

_To make him atone for his terrible crime,_

_A plan prevails,_

_Another plan fails,_

_One shall be offered the greatest bait,_

_For all heros must decide their own fate._

Then the mist swirled and retreated back into the mummy's mouth. I took a deep breath and walked back down the stairs to Chrion.

"So? What did it say?" he asked anxiously.

I repeated what the Oracle said. "I'm not sure what it means though," I said.

"Well, three people will go to Kronos. That much is obvious. Then it says that your plan could work or fail. I don't know what it means by the greatest bait," Chrion mused. "At least it doesn't say that anybody will die."

"Yeah," I said. "But if our plan fails we'll end up dead or worse."

"That's just a risk you must take. I need you to choose your two companions. You will leave first thing in the morning."

"Wait!" I said. "I don't even know where to go."

"Ah." Chrion turned back to me. "My best guess would be that you need to go to Mount Oryths, in California."

"That makes sense," I said. "But why would Kronos go there?"

"Most likely resting his troops, or trying to free Atlas," Chrion replied. "In any case, it's your best guess." With that he trotted back outside to get the campers ready for Capture the Flag.

I walked outside to the cool night air. There was about 20 minutes until Capture the Flag, so everyone was trying to get their armor on. I knew that I wouldn't be able to play, though. I needed to choose who would come with me and pack. I walked over to where Grover was standing.

"So? How did it go?" he asked.

"Well I got a quest. You in?"

"Of course!" Grover shouted.

I smiled, relieved. "Okay, go pack and everything, we leave tomorrow morning."

"Cool." He trotted off to go gather his things.

I walked over to my cabin, thinking about who else I would take on this quest. I wanted to say Annabeth, I mean, we had gone on all of our quests together, but something was holding me back. I wasn't sure what though. I walked into my cabin to see Tyson cleaning.

"Brother!" he shouted gleefully. He gave me a hug, but managed not to crack any bones.

"Hey Tyson," I said. A sudden thought struck me. "Do you want to go on a quest with me?"

Tyson looked at the ground sadly. "Can't," he said. "Tomorrow going back to forges."

"Oh," I said. "I thought that dad wanted you to stay here."

Tyson looked back up at me. "Daddy say let you make bad people up here go BOOM! and I go and help make weapons."

I smiled. "That's cool." I quickly put my stuff in a bag. I looked at the clock. 5 minutes until Capture the Flag starts. I sprinted out to see Annabeth talking to her boyfriend.

"Oh, hi Percy," she said. "Percy, this is Chris."

I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you," I wheezed, still out of breath from the sprint from my cabin. I turned to Annabeth. "Listen, I got a quest to go stop Kronos. You coming?"

Annabeth smiled. "Of course Seaweed Brain."

"Great," I said. "We leave first thing tomorrow, so you need to pack your things."

"Alright." She took of her armor, gave Chris a goodbye kiss, and walked toward her cabin to pack.

I ran over to my cabin. Tyson was already asleep, so I just fell onto my bed and fell asleep to the sounds of people screaming.

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Someone was shaking me awake. I opened my eyes to see the clock. 2:24am. "Why-" I started. I looked up to see Annabeth standing over me. "Oh my gods Annabeth, what in hades are you doing in my room!?"

Annabeth burst out laughing. "That-_laugh_- was totally-_laugh laugh_- worth it."

"Shut up." I rolled out of bed. I hadn't changed before going to sleep, so I was all ready. "Why are you waking me up anyway?"

"First thing in the morning really does mean the _first _thing in the morning, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth replied.

"It's 2 O'clock in the morning," I whined.

"Whatever. Hurry up though. If Grover can get up, you can too."

I stretched. "He's a goat," I argued.

"So if you look at the way you eat, you guys are just about the same," Annabeth reasoned.

I splashed her with water from the fountain. After that she decided that it was better to wait ouside for me rather that risk another water hazard. Finally after about five minutes of fumbling around and swearing, I was ready. I walked outside and met Annabeth. We walked down the hill toward Argus' van.

"Wait!" Of course, it was Chris. I _did_ kind of feel mad that Annabeth had a boyfriend, but hey, she could do what she wanted.

"Percy!" I turned around to see Chiron galloping towards me.

"Hi," I said. "Come to see us off?"

"Of course," he replied. "And also to give you this." He handed my a small cell phone. I took it and looked it over.

"But I thought that monsters could track these."

Chrion smiled. "You will see that that one has been, how will I say it, tampered with, if you will."

I smiled back in gratitude. "Thanks." I slipped it into my pocket next to Riptide. I continued walking down the hill, where I reached the bottom and realized that Annabeth wasn't there with me. I turned and saw that she was still with Chris, and they of course were kissing. "Hey!" I shouted. I took Riptide and threw it at them, while it was still in pen form of course. Unfortunately my aim was _too_ good, I nailed Chris right in the head.

"Ow!" he shouted. "Oh, right, you should probably go now."

As Annabeth ran down the hill I couldn't help but smile. She rolled her eyes. "Seaweed Brain," and jumped into the car.

"What?" I jumped into the car after her and shut the door. Argus started the car, and soon, we were off.

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"Sorry this is as far as I can take you."

"That's okay. Thanks though." I stepped out of the car into the dim sunlight that was the train station. Grover and Annabeth got out behind me, and Argus drove off back toward Camp Half-Blood. Suddenly, classical music started to play.

"What's that?" Grover asked.

"I think that's you Percy," Annabeth suggested.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks." Then I remembered the cell phone. "Oh, right!" I took it out of my pocket. _Unknown Caller_, it read. I flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Hey, oh my gods, this actually works!"

"Who is this?" I asked.

"Wow, you've already forgotten me?"

"Rachel?" I guessed. At that remark, Annabeth's mouth curved into a deep frown.

"You're talking to Rachel?" she hissed.

I held up one finger and spoke back into the phone. "Hey listen, can I call you back later?"

"Sure, see ya."

"Bye," I said. I stored Rachel's number in my phonebook and changed the ringtone to heavy metal. I turned to Annabeth. "Yeah?"

"Whatever." She walked hurredly to the ticket line.

I looked at Grover. "What did I do this time?"

Grover just shook his head and followed Annabeth. I stopped for a minute to think why everyone was mad at me, until I realized that my friends were getting away. "Hey!" I shouted, running after them. "Wait up!"

**A/N Okay, just a short little author's note here. I bet that some people think by now that I'm gonna make this a Perachel and Annabeth x OOC (I think that's right), but don't worry, because if I did, some of you would probably literally hunt me down. So I swear on the River Styx that this will be a Percabeth story. That's it so thanks for reading!!!!**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Sorry for the late update. I've been busy. . . procrastinating. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I swear I don't own PJO, otherwise I'd be working on much more important things at this current moment.

"Hey!" I shouted. I ran to catch up with them, getting there just as they got to the ticket booth.

"How many?" the guy asked.

"Three," I wheezed.

"Okay." He totaled up the cost. "$57.40." Everyone looked expectantly at me.

"What?" I held out my hands. "I don't have any money."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Hang on, I'll get it." She went on a long rant under her breath as she fumbled around trying to get the money. I didn't hear all of it, but I caught, "Oh my gods," "Such a seaweed brain," and "So that's why Thalia joined the hunt." She paid the guy, and we got on the train. We looked around and finally found and empty compartment.

"So what now?" I asked as we got in.

"Well," Annabeth looked toward the ceiling in mock thought, "I'd have to say we're going to San Fransisco."

This time_ I _got to roll my eyes. "No, I mean about Kronos."

"Didn't you have a plan?" Grover asked.

"Yeah, I was just wondering if you guys had any ideas."

"I don't know," Grover said. "Tell you what, if I get any ideas, I'll let you know." With that he pulled his cap over his eyes and went to sleep.

"How? How does he do that?" I marveled.

"No idea. Anyway, let's figure out a plan for defeating Kronos," Annabeth said.

"A child of Athena without a plan?" I taunted. Annabeth didn't respond. She took out her knife and examined it, probably wondering how to stab me with it without dirtying it. "Okay, okay," I held up my hands in surrender. "Let's just get a plan, all right?"

"All right." Annabeth sheathed her knife, and we started brainstorming. After about five minutes we heard a crash from somewhere behind us.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I don't know. I'm going to go check it out, okay?" Before I could answer, she put on her cap and left, leaving me alone with one snoring satyr. I stared out the window to pass the time. I couldn't see anything outside it was so dark. It kind of reminded me of Annabeth. At certain times it was peaceful, but then contradicted itself with nights like this. And speaking of Annabeth-

CRASH! I looked around, Annabeth was framed in the doorway, looking tired and defeated. "What's up?" I asked.

"Some monsters, don't recognize them," she panted.

"C'mon then, let's get out of here." I was halfway to the door when Annabeth stopped me.

"Grover?!"

"Crap. Right. GROVER!" He stirred, muttering about food. "GROVER!!!!!!" He jumped up.

"What?" he asked, slightly fazed.

"We have to go about-" ROOOOOAR!

"Time to go," Annabeth summed up, and we sprinted down the hall after her. A few minutes later we emerged into the cold night air.

"So........what now?" I asked.

"Maybe we should head back to camp. Grover what do you think?"

No response.

"Grover?" You could hear the panic in Annabeth's voice. I leaned over and squinted in the darkness. I backtracked for a bit, until I almost tripped.

"I think that this is our answer," I yelled. In a huddled lump was Grover.

"What do you think happened?" Annabeth asked.

"Definitely monster, but whatever did it is long gone now. Shall we go back to camp?"

"Yeah, but how do we get there?"

"Here." I walked into the forest where I could get a fairly good echo, and whistled. We waited a couple minutes, and pretty soon Blackjack arrived with his friend Porkpie.

_Hey boss, need a lift?_

_Yeah, that would be great, _I thought back. _Camp Half-Blood._

_Hop on._I swung Grover onto Blackjack's back and the mounted, where I got a fairly good view of Annabeth struggling to get on Porkpie.

_Ready? _I checked to see that Annabeth was safely mounted, then gave Blackjack the OK. We ascended into the air, where the cool breeze and the night air slowly lulled me to sleep.

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I woke up who knows later, we where still flying. "Hey, how close are we?" I asked Blackjack.

_Almost there Boss._

I looked closely and saw that you could just barely see the outline of Camp Half-Blood on the horizon. "Annabeth, wake up," I called.

She awoke with a start. "Wha- where are we?"

"Almost there." I gestured to the horizon. Surely enough, two minutes later we landed at the base of Half-Blood Hill. We dismounted, dragging Grover along with us. Chrion galloped over to meed us, then noticed Grover.

"Oh, well I'd better take him to the Big House. Good to see that you're still alive," he said, then left without another word.

"I'll go and find Chris," she said cheerfully, and ran off to who knows where. I slowly trotted down the hill, heading toward my cabin. That was when I realized that I had left my things on the train.

"Oh Hades," I muttered. Oh well, there was nothing of importance in there. I had nothing to do, so I walked around to the Big House to visit Grover, but on my way I heard some shouting, so I headed towards that.

"I hate you you dirty-" A crowd had gathered. I walked around everyone and saw that Annabeth was yelling at Chris. I looked around the crowd, then went to talk to Travis Stoll.

"What's going on?" I muttered.

"Oh, Annabeth caught Chris with some girl from the Aphrodite cabin."

"Sounds pretty bad," I reasoned.

"I'll say," he turned around to look at me. "She's been yelling for five minutes now." We both turned back to the fight, well, not so much fight as Annabeth yelling as Chris cowered. I won't repeat what she said, probably isn't suitable for T rating anyway. After about another 10 minutes she ran out of steam and stormed back towards the Athena cabin. Travis turned to me. "Bet you're pretty happy now."

"What do you mean?"

"Seriously?" He looked like he was about to laugh.

"What?" I almost shouted.

"Nothing." He turned and walked away saying, "Idiot." I probably would've chased after him, but I still had to visit Grover. I trotted over to the Big House and opened the door. Grover was sitting upright in a bed.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey." He looked worried. "What was all that yelling about?"

"Oh, Annabeth broke up with Chris, something about an Aphrodite girl."

"Okay." He leaned back in his bed.

"Wait," I said. "You've been unconscious for a day, and _that's_ the first thing you ask?"

"I was just wondering," he said defensively. "Anyway, when are you leaving?"

"Oh, sorry." I got up to leave.

"No, not that," he said hurriedly. "I mean when are you leaving for you're quest?"

"I'm not sure, maybe tomorrow. I still need to talk to Chrion."

"Cool. So Annabeth broke up with Chris?"

"Yeah, I guess."

He laughed. "Ironic."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, they got together at the last dance, and the next one was scheduled for today."

I thought about it for a second. "Yeah, but not exactly the most cheerful of ironies either."

Grover shrugged. "I was just saying."

"Yeah I get it. Listen do you think you'll be able to go back on the quest?"

Grover grimaced. "I doubt it. I broke my ankle, won't be able to move for another two weeks, and you probably shouldn't wait for me."

"All right," I said. "So-" The conch horn sounded for dinner. "Got to go," I said and ran outside towards the dining pavillion.

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After dinner, at which Annabeth hadn't shown up, I sought out Chrion.

"Ah, Percy," he said. "When do you believe you will be going back on your quest? Not that we don't want you here, but it really shouldn't be postponed."

"I was thinking tomorrow," I said.

"Good." He smiled. "You will need to get another companion, seeing as Grover can't go. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get everyone ready for the dance." He galloped off, while I went into the woods to look for Nico.

"NICO!" I shouted.

"Yeah," said a voice behind me.

"Holy h-" I jumped around to see Nico. "Seriously, you need to stop doing that."

"Yeah, whatever. So what do you need?"

"What do go on a quest?"

"Sure. C'mon, you going to the dance?"

"No, I'll just go to the beach or something."

"All right." He headed out of the woods, while I walked towards the beach. As I approached, I realized that I wasn't the only one with that idea. I walked over and sat down next to the figure.

"Hey Annabeth."

"Hi," she sniffed.

Something overtook me, some inner Aphrodite, and I did something never imaginable. "Do you want to go to the dance?"

She did a double-take. "Sure, but you should know, Luke..."

"Right," I stood up, "I get it." I knew that if I said another word my voice would crack.

"Percy," she said, laughing.

"What?" I asked.

She kissed me. "You have to let me finish my sentences."

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A/N: . . . And there's your Percabeth. Thanks for reading everyone!


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